UK science minister tours WA SKA site

THE UK Science Minister has braved scorching temperatures in WA's Mid West to tour the beginnings of the Square Kilometre Array radioastronomy project.

Rebecca Le May

AAPMarch 2, 20144:36pm

UK Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts has had his first taste of the outback touring the site of what will be the world's largest and most powerful radio-telescope.

The beginnings of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) are emerging at the Murchison Radioastronomy Observatory in central Western Australia, with two precursor projects, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) and the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) already started.

The MWA, led by Curtin University Professor Steven Tingay, began operating last year while the ASKAP is due to kick off in earnest later this year.

The Brits are playing a key role in the multi-billion dollar, 10-nation collaboration. It will see millions of antennas installed in South Africa and WA, where the Murchison area offers excellent radio quiet.

The SKA will have image resolution 50 times greater than the Hubble telescope and have a discovery potential 10,000 times greater than the best present-day instruments.

Mind-boggling amounts of data will be processed and questions are expected to be answered, such as, how did the universe begin, what is dark energy, what generates giant magnetic fields in space and what and where are the conditions for life.

"I'm here to see some fantastic science, being delivered with Australian grit in creating these extraordinary facilities here in the outback that is part of this international project," Mr Willetts told reporters.

"This is going to get radio signals from the time when the universe was in its earliest stages, when stars were being created. It's going to get us back to the first light, when the universe was beginning."

Mr Willetts - who saw kangaroos and termite mounds in the wild for the first time on Saturday as he endured searing temperatures and an abundance of pesky flies - said the SKA was not only a boon for astronomers but also for computing.

"There's going to be more data collected from here and South Africa than the current flow of data across the complete world wide web. That's then got to be analysed and that's going to require innovations in computing and software."

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, who accompanied Mr Willetts on the tour, emphasised the immense power the SKA will have and the job opportunities it will create.

"This is Australian research and science at its very best," Ms Bishop said.

"It will be a staged process over time and we hope that the Square Kilometre Array can be completed by 2022 and then the excitement really begins, as the telescope will be able to scan the universe in ways never known before.

"All sorts of technological and scientific breakthroughs can result as we continue to work with this incredible project.